KING OF NEW YORK: Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist hopes to bring New York its first Stanley Cup in 18 years.

CROWN HIM: Henrik Lundqvist finished third in the NHL with a .930 save percentage. (Reuters)

Before Brad Richards signed with the Rangers, he knew Henrik Lundqvist socially through their mutual friendship with Sean Avery, but the Conn Smythe Trophy winner for the 2004 Stanley Cup champion Lightning didn’t know Lundqvist at all as a goaltender or a competitor.

“I’d hung out with Hank a few times in New York and then with him and [former Dallas teammate] Loui Eriksson at last year’s All-Star Game, and those were fun times, but I had no idea how intense he is,” Richards told The Post yesterday.

“Early this year I made the mistake of trying to make conversation with him when he came into the locker room at 9:30 on a game day, and I learned pretty quickly not to do it again.

“Hank is totally focused. He is committed to being the best. He is desperate to win. To have a main cog, your goaltender has to be the pillar.

“That’s what we have here.”

What we have here is a team with a realistic chance of winning its first Stanley Cup in 18 years and second in 72 years with the playoffs beginning tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden with Game 1 of the opening round against the Senators.

We have a team of blue collar laborers proud of that identity led by royalty in nets who, truth be told, is a Black-and-Blueshirt at heart and who is fit for a hard hat every bit as much for a crown.

“My game has always been about battling, first,” The King told The Post last week in Pittsburgh. “It has always been about competing.

“It’s always been about doing everything I could to win.”

The King, the nickname I bestowed upon the goaltender in the game story that followed his fourth NHL start and first shutout in October 2005 — “He is King Henrik of Sweden,” I remember writing as if it were yesterday, so apparent were his world-class skills—is everywhere these days, the name above the title on the Broadway marquee.

He was featured last month on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.’’ He is on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated, at least on the East Coast, with “Bubba [Watson]”, as Lundqvist yesterday referred to the Masters’ champion, gracing the cover on the rest of the run.

“Everything that comes with this is fine, and I enjoy it, but it is all about doing what I have to do for my team,” Lundqvist said last week. “My energy is focused on this.”

No question about it, this was the best season of Lundqvist’s NHL career that began in 2005-06. There were fewer marginal goals allowed than ever before; as much steadiness as brilliance. The Rangers often operated as a rope-a-dope team, comfortable with Lundqvist there to absorb the blows before counter-attack and victory.

“It isn’t just one guy, it can’t be to have a winning team like ours,” Lundqvist said. “We won together. It’s how you do it.”

Lundqvist played a little bit less this year, relaxed a little bit more on days between games.

“When you’re winning, it is easier to conserve energy than when you go down to the last day knowing you have to win every game just to make [the playoffs],” Lundqvist said. “It makes it easier to come to the rink and play your game.

“You want to win so badly, you try to do too much but what I learned is that when you do less you get more.”

The playoffs begin tomorrow. Game 1 on Broadway. More, not less, is expected of Lundqvist. More than ever before. The King will be ready.